Her Flower's Promise
by SongBirdie
Summary: Hanna David makes her baby girl, her little tulip; promise her something on her deathbed. Winner of the Everyone Has a Nickname Challenge on NFA.


**Her Flower's Promise **

**Author's Note**: This story was written for the **Everyone Has a Nickname** Challenge on NFA.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own NCIS; it is the property of its respective creators.

Thanks to **Satan-Wears -Prada** for beta-ing, I love you!

Fourteen year old Tali David was the only one at home with her dying mother. Her siblings were off on "business," and her father was too busy to bless his wife with his time in her last hours on this earth. Hanna David had been sick with cancer for over six years, and Tali had been her constant companion and care taker since she was eight.

Hanna David beckoned her daughter closer to her bedside. Tali went to sit next to her mother, and Hanna took her full, still growing, hands, in her long, brittle, and bony ones. She looked at her baby girl, her little flower, and knew she had to ask her to fulfill the promise she had made herself upon her daughter's birth. It was too late for her graceful dancer, her Ziva, but God be her witness, she would not let the same happen to her little tulip.

"My sweet, sweet little flower, my tulip, I need you to promise me something." Hanna could feel Death coming ever closer to her, and she silently begged for a few more minutes.

"Of course, mother, anything." Tali swore to her mother, running a wet wash cloth over her forehead.

"Promise me, over my deathbed, over my grave, that you will not go into Mossod. You are not made for that type of life, my lovely flower; it will destroy your strong, beautiful, heart." She saw her daughter hesitate, caught between what she had been told was her destiny since she was a child, and the truth delivered by the only person who had ever loved her unconditionally. Hanna pushed on, knowing that her time was coming closer and closer.

"Your father is not a good man, Tulip, you must remember that. We, he and I, made a… deal many years ago. When I realized I couldn't save your sister, I made him swear on Ari's life, that if something should happen to me, he'd let you live with my sister, Cora. He agreed to spare you, if I didn't get in the way of him making Ziva his killing machine. Swear to me, Tali, that you will continue your breathtaking art, so you can go to the Sorbonne like we talked about, that you'll take the world by storm, a different way then your siblings will. "

Hanna took a beep breath, and forced herself to go on, all too aware of her daughter's eyes on her.

"Swear to me that you will not fall so deep into this world that you have to decide which one of your two children to save. Swear to me that you will tell no one of my last request of you. If your father tries to stop you from leaving, get to your Aunt Cora, the way I showed you, she has leverage. Last, my sweet, sweet flower, my tulip, swear that you will live for me, for the life I never had a chance to have, and for your sister, for the life she'll never know she missed. Live, Tali, my lovely little flower, I will watch over you." Hanna David stopped, her breath coming out short and shallow, Death was mere feet away from her. She looked into her daughter's tear covered eyes, memorizing them. "Swear to me, Tali."

Tali David's face was covered in salty tears, and she felt like her heart was crumbling, just like her world. She looked into her mother's eyes, soon to never show her love for her again. Swallowing, knowing her world would change with this pledge, she nodded.

"I swear over your deathbed, I swear over your grave, I will live for you, mother." Tali whispered her voice steady. And for Ziva, went unspoken, but known. Hanna David smiled, reaching her shaking hands around her neck; she placed her Star of David into her daughter's palm.

She simply told her daughter, "Let it be with you while I can't." Giving her baby girl one last kiss on her forehead, like she had when she was a newborn, she closed her eyes, content to let Death close the remaining gap, now that she had her little flower's promise.

A heartbroken Tali David held her mother hands, her Star nestled between them, crying for the loss of her light, long after Hanna David's heart stopped beating; long after her skin was cold to the touch. Hours later, untangling their hands, she closed the now blank eyes, and wiping her tears, went to go pack before her father returned. She would keep her promise, no matter what it cost her.

**Valerie Portolano **

**Oct. 16th 2009 **


End file.
